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Green Bay Packers: Colin Kaepernick will haunt them in offseason, again

By Tyler DunneMilwaukee Journal Sentinel

Posted:
01/08/2014 12:01:00 AM CST

Updated:
01/08/2014 08:17:31 AM CST

San Francisco quarterback Colin Kaepernick (7) avoids being tackled by Green Bay's Davon House (31) during the second quarter of their NFC wild-card game at Lambeau Field in Green Bay, Wis., on Sunday, Jan. 5, 2014. (Jose Carlos Fajardo/Bay Area News Group/MCT)

GREEN BAY -- The sleeveless, sprinting, howitzer-armed Colin Kaepernick cleared out the Green Bay Packer locker room again. Fifteen hours after ripping through this defense, all that remained here were trash bags, empty lockers and players hunting for answers.

More veterans would help, Tramon Williams postulated. The young players in house will grow, Micah Hyde assured.

Again, Kaepernick was better than Aaron Rodgers. Again, the Packer defense didn't have an answer. Again, they're all left with six months to think about it. If he isn't in players' heads yet, he will be by the time players return in the spring.

All off-season, the Packers are left to find the formula. How do they stop this 6-foot-4, 230-pound quarterback?

In San Francisco's 23-20 win at Lambeau Field, he was the difference.

"We were probably one play away," coach Mike McCarthy said. "We were one play not good enough."

In three wins, Kaepernick has 1,201 total yards against Green Bay. Ridiculous. No single player has dominated the Packers like this, this fast. Eleven of those yards will haunt the team all off-season. On third and 8, the Packers sent seven and seven didn't get home. Kaepernick turned the corner like a 200-meter sprinter rounding the curve.

"I was still able to push it but that one specific play," Mulumba said, "that's the one that kind of got me to, not give up, but I knew I couldn't push off it."

His arm. His feet. He is no conventional, mechanical, take-what-they-give-you quarterback. But in three games, Kaepernick keeps uncovering ways to beat Green Bay. It was never about the read-option. It was about an athlete foreign to the position.

For the record, the Packers were not bullied. Ryan Pickett was right. The perception that San Francisco is more physical up front is overblown. At least now it is. Green Bay held Frank Gore to 3.3 yards per carry. The problem is the quarterback. This was Michael Vick prancing through the snow 11 years ago.

In 2012, the Packers went defense with their first six picks. Only Mike Daniels from that class was a threat this season. In 2013, Green Bay snoozed through free agency again, vowing the young players in house would develop.

Another January playoff game arrived and Kaepernick was just as difficult to contain.

So now, Thompson has critical decisions to make at each line of the defense. All starting defensive linemen are free agents. Green Bay and San Francisco both run with 3-4 defenses with a striking talent discrepancy at inside linebacker. Brad Jones was overpaid. At safety, Morgan Burnett did not live up to his extension and stubbornness at the other safety spot backfired. Badly.

Not only did Green Bay's safeties fail to register an interception for the first time since at least the 1950s. They weren't that close to many.

Personnel changes are needed. Those changes should be made with Kaepernick in mind. More speed at linebacker and a rangy, playmaking safety are musts.

As you'd expect, Green Bay says it's close.

"I think that everything's here," Hyde said. "We just talked about it as a secondary, that if we get a second crack at it -- with everybody in the room -- we feel like we have a huge opportunity. But I don't think we necessarily let anybody down. With the injuries and stuff, we were moving guys around.

"We feel like we have the opportunity, we could really make a run and a push as a secondary."

Datone Jones noted that Kaepernick made key audibles at the line. Unlike Rodgers, he doesn't stand in a pocket and go Read 1 to Read 2 to Read 3. But he plays to his athleticism.

Said Jones, "A guy like Kaepernick made a lot of audibles and checks to attack those gaps in our defenses. And a great quarterback killed us with his feet, what can you say?"

Injuries were a factor. But injuries, and injuries alone, don't get the Packer defense off the hook.

Dom Capers should stay. The scheme, it's proven, works. Players again put the onus on themselves above all else.

But unless there's change of some sort, we'll probably we talking about Kaepernick again in, oh, about 12 months.